Every once in a while I tell a friend on the phone, "Gotta go! I'm exercising with Mab (my wife) in five minutes."
And he may go, "Oh ho ho! Is that so?" because he knows I'm quadriplegic and I know I'm quadriplegic and maybe I'm talking code for some extracurricular activities about to go down. You know, the old wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more. (Any Pythons in the house?)
But I say, "Nope, gotta go, bud, can't be late. Bye." Quick, she's already casting it to the TV!
So now my friend's saying and probably you're saying, Dude, what kind of exercises can a quadriplegic do?
These are exercise videos that Mab started doing during lockdown. Planet Fitness began putting out free ones daily, with newbie-friendly exercises. Not her thing at all, but she was climbing the walls and was surprised to find herself having fun doing them. When retired NFL star Julian Edelmann led a session, I sat in for laughs and support. It grew into something to do together.
So, how the heck can a quadriplegic exercise? Is it wishful thinking? Is it woo?
Fair questions.
It's not woo. I'm actually doing this stuff, and sometimes by the end I'm out of breath and heart's a-racing. That's all real. In fact I crave it because wink-wink, nudge-nudge, there are few other activities as exhilarating.
Is it wishful thinking? No, it's not that either. I'm not pretending or hoping to exercise my way out of the wheelchair. I'm not trying to sell a book or diet that in 30 days is going to have you moonwalking across the floor.
So, what am I doing? Pretending? Scoring points with my wife? Because I'm putting in the time, many minutes over many days. It could be the power of positive thinking, but I'm thinking it's more than that. I'm thinking it's like dancing.
Do you know when you're on the dance floor and you hit that groove where the music sweeps you away and takes control? I was a terrible dancer, but even I had moments when my body surprised me with a juke here or a slide there, neither of which I planned or thought of in advance. It was the music cranked it out of me. Can you relate?
So now I watch and listen to the routine going on and try to move whatever's supposed to be moving, whether it does so or not, mostly not.
Even if not, there's a type of exercise called isometrics where there's little or no movement because you press your muscles into or against resistance. Oh, it'll tire you out. That's what I'm doing.
I might try pumping my arms in a curl. Looking down, I may see they moved a centimeter, a millimeter or not at all, but I feel the muscle firing. Other times I swear I'm wiggling my toes or my foot, then check to find nothing at all. But I feel it firing: the muscles? the tendons? the imagination? Who knows? But I can tell you that after 20 minutes or sometimes even 10, I can feel my heart racing. From where I sit, any kind of cardio exertion's good indeed.
The best ones are trainers who throw in a lot of vocal cues and descriptions of specific muscles being used. I respond better, with better results.
I have some proof. After a while, sometimes my legs kick or arms move. It's not all the time, but it's like magic. Sometimes a jerk, or sometimes it goes on and on like a car in winter with engine knock, chug-chug-chug-chug-chugging long after you pulled out the keys. (Do they still do that?) It's funny and it's gratifying.
My torso, shoulders and neck are stronger, too. A lot of people in chairs end up slumping, me included. But I drive with my head, by pressing sensors in my headrest. The better my upper-body control, the better my access and control over my mobility. Also, the better to avoid injuries to neck muscles and bones.
Besides, doing the work keeps my head in the game. It's what we do every day, to boost one another up. We even started looking forward to it. (I know: bizarre!) So we got up to day 123. That's not a brag, it's a lifetime. Then Mab got an attack of vertigo for a day - it's an inner-ear problem (BPPV) that comes and goes. We had to start all over, and got to 9. That's when I got together with some buds for the first time in 14 months, and we reunioned a little too hard, which wiped out most of the next day. Yeah. So we started over again, and today is 25. Again, just clinging to my liferaft.
I've said it before, lockdown was same-old same-old to a lot of folks with disabilities. If you say 20-minute exercises will make my legs kick, keep my brain from turning into mayonaise, and sculpt my wife's legs? Cast that video.
Any quads out there with an exercise program? Tell me what you do.
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